Wethersfield Has Chance To Comment On Plan

Report Due On School Diversity

WETHERSFIELD — Residents will have the opportunity to comment tonight on the final report on educational quality and racial diversity for Region 9, which includes Wethersfield.

The hearing is sponsored by the town council and the board of education, which must vote on the report by Dec. 1.

From broadening the curriculum to reflect more cultures, and lengthening the school day to create magnet schools, there's something for everyone in the report, which is a response to a 1993 state law aimed at encouraging communities to come up with voluntary plans to improve education for all students.

``Some people thought it went a little too far. Some people thought it didn't go far enough,'' said Joseph Constantine, a school board member and a representative to the Region 9 committee on educational quality and diversity.

In the end, the Region 9 forum, which includes Wethersfield, Hartford and 20 other communities, came up with a compromise that allows towns to participate at whatever level they are comfortable with, said Constantine, who also chairs the Wethersfield advisory committee on educational quality and diversity.

``That's one of the beauties of it,'' he said. ``It's all voluntary. It's so voluntary that even if a town approves it, their participation can be minimal.''

Besides Region 9, the law created 10 other districts that have come up with plans. All address the need to break down the economic and racial segregation that separates the cities from the suburbs.

For Constantine, the Region 9 plan does not go far enough. But, he said that ``in terms of where people are at right now, it probably goes as far as you can reasonably expect it to go.''

The report, for instance, proposes increasing the length of the school day and year, expanding programs that encourage appreciation of diversity through sensitivity training, and regularly assessing teacher performance in providing feedback to students.

To encourage a more diverse population, the committee recommends providing technical assistance to families that might have difficulty finding housing in the region, and seeking grants for improved mass transit so that lower- income families may find the suburbs more accessible.

It also suggests opening a regional language-resource center and hiring a more diverse staff.

The committee made clear that the local districts could not pick up the tab for any initiatives coming out of the plan, Constantine said.